The
Multimedia
Bazaar
James Stewart
Some trends, visions and concepts for the future of multimedia and the TV
Outline
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Conceptual issues
Ownership and Individualisation
Space and Time
Home space and Public space
Adopting and Configuring technology
Future TV
Clipboard Professional
Paper and the screen
Innovation production and supply of
technology
• Trends and Issues
Convergence
• Convergence based on ‘digital’ information
• Convergence of media, channels, industry,
regulation.
• A vision not always in sync with reality
• Complex innovation environment creates
Diversity and diversification parallel process.
• Interoperability and interconnection: flexibility
and diversity v. lock-in and homogeneity.
Multimedia
• Interactive Multimedia
• Multimedia; interactivity; personalisation;
facility; complexity; universality(ubiquity)
• Technologies of future:
– pattern recognition
– Database and network management
– human-machine interface,
– Ubiquitous technology
Multimedia: devices and
content
• Doubly articulated:
– as physical objects and parts of technical
systems
– Bringing media ‘objects’ and flows into
personal world
• Analysed as:
– Practically: practices, routines, resources,
activities
– Symbolically: meanings, identity
4 Layer model
CONTENT
forms, genres and content itself
APPLICATIONS
Specific configurations - services, applications and products, within
particular sectors and contexts
SYSTEMS
Combinations of technologies for storage, display, delivery, control,
distribution
COMPONENTS
basic building blocks that can be combined to enable product and
system development
Application Domains
Field of use of technology
Telework
e-Leisure
e-government
e-learning
life managment
Used in/for...
Application Packages
Technical configurations defined by user
activities, needs, values and context
e.g. Personal Networker, Traveller’s Aid
Network Supported Work Tools
Linked/Used
together create ..
Data Applications
technical products with specific
functionality and user interface
e-mail, file transfer, GPS, voice calling, GIS,
realtime video games ec.
Make use of...
Network Services
Uses/application of ICTs
• Education, work, entertainment, shopping (selling),
communication, health (Traditional Application
Domains)
• Information
seeking,
browsing,
access,
communication, transactions, media consumption,
play (Information activities)
• Knowledge,
Communication,
Service,
Play,
Verification
• Immediacy, Intimacy, Flexibility, Freedom (closeness
of human relations)
• Belonging, Playing, Coping, Survival, Balancing,
Delivery, Control, Freedom
• Time saving, Time - wasting, Time filling (related to
time use).
Individualisation of technology
Diffusion: Elite -> Communal - >Individual
ownership and use of media technology
– Communal includes workplace
– Technology, wealth, costs and supply side drives
process.
• Privatization of ownership and use
• Not replacement uses, but complementary.
– Many benefits from communal ownership and use
– Continued innovation in communal use.
– Individualisation at first detracts from communal,
then strengths
– Privatisation occurs in private and public spaces
– Private space use eventually links back to public
space use with technical and social innovation.
Individualisation
• Breakdown of community rules and
constraints.
• Individualisation of everyday life.
• Many services now focused on individual
rather than market, or audience or community
• Technologies allow individual to escape and
privacy from constrains of everyday life
• Also facilitate togetherness - in place and in
time - network community.
• Individual ownership also problematic for
many
Individualisation
• Personalisation and mobility
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Radio
Music devices
Television and video
Telephone - messaging devices
Computers
• Diversity of media, but still desire to cling to
common identifying cultural products within
culture of subculture.
• Consumption of media has become key in
identity forming - self identity
– identification with ‘others’
– But identity is always against others too.
Individual and community
• Desire and expectation of sharing and
belonging
• Technology opens up new channels and
possibilities and obligations
• Communications are affective 90% of the
time, rather than informational
• Emerging symbols and culture of affective
relationships: voice,messages, pictures etc.
– Changing use and value of existing multimedia
forms: photo->picture messages, written note>email.sms etc.
• Paper traditional media for linking - telephone
and multimedia supplementing. Paper still has
key affordances
Space and Place
• Private spaces - communal
• Personal space - individual
• Public spaces
– Public
– Semi-public
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Home space
Spaces of Movement
Community spaces
Work spaces
Home space
• Home traditional shared space
• Private, protected space
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Protected by law and culture
Place for children, illness, sex, opinions,
Man’s ‘castle’ - women’s realm
Place for identity creation and display
• Divided physically and socially
– Age, gender, social roles.
• Intimately linked to other homes
– Children, women
• Place for security, privacy, togetherness,
family, Aesthetic space
TV as the hearth
Changing home
• Rural->Urban->suburban migration
• Space Limited in cities: smaller homes
• Increasingly isolated individual living in
smaller spaces
• But with more wealth, and increasing culture
of investment in home space
• Changing nature of home space
– Penetration of work and work technology
– Children’s space as public psace for children
breaks down.
Home space
• Electronic media pervade many households
• Living room invested in as a communal space
- attract family and friends with technology!
• Technology also individual provides privacy
within home space
• Children’s bedroom culture
• Gender issues
• Technology fragmented in ownership use and
systems
• Paper still has key role in shared spaces.
Domesticating technology
• Homes as aesthetic space
• Limited space
• Negotiated by household
members.
Theme
Environmental Factors
Communi cation and
Information
Efficiency and
Productivity
Key issues
Reduc ing the
env ir onmental im pact of
the hom e, and the cost of
runn ing the home. This is
perhaps one of the most
deve loped perspectives on
home techno logy
The ho me as a
comm unication and
information hub:
techno logy all ows people
to communicate as they
wish.
The ho me as a place for
more work and education.
More efficient
performanc e of domestic
tasks, such as shopping
and cleaning. More cho ice
and efficiency in access to
information and
entertainment.
Technologies
Energy techno logies control of he ating ,
li ghting, insulation,
effic ient buil ding
practices, materia ls, easy
and cheap maintenance .
Network techno logies –
broadband connec tions ,
end use r termi nals –
interactive television, PC,
telephone etc
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On-line learning,
broadband network
conne ctions, wo rk station s,
Internet shopp ing and
bank ing, televis ion on
demand .
Privacy a nd Security
Family Development and
Well-being
Communit y Inclusion
The ho me as a private
space. Home activiti es are
private. Also protected
from i nfo rmation and
comm unication intrusion.
The ho me as a place to
bring up a famil y. It
provide space and tools to
li ve together, learn, and
grow.
The ho me li nked strong ly
to local comm uniti es and
global persona l
comm uniti es, and li nking
home lif e to working lif e.
Network techno logies,
alarm technolog ie s
???? Comm unication, and
learning technolog ie s,
famil y en tertainment,
persona l m edia
produc tion…
???? Commun ication , local
information services,
comm unit y media
produc tion…
Public Space
• Technology facilitates mobility
• Created a world of enforced travel
• Local has expanded: the personal space has
expanded following transport network
• New spaces of media use
• Traditional communal spaces for media use
now media rich. Reinforced by personal
media. Defined by content choice.
• True public spaces avoided - semi public
dominate
• These spaces always owned by someone
Public spaces
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Work spaces: office: other people’s offices
Retail spaces
Transport spaces: trains, terminals,roads,
Entertainment spaces: cinemas
Rest spaces: cafes, hotels
Sport facilities: gyms etc
Social spaces: pubs, bars
, clubs, sports
• Learning spaces
Space and Place
• Screens in transport
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Plane, Bus
Trains, Taxis
Airports, Bus stations
Cars
Easy to position, lightweight,
durable
– New models of ownership
• Information and advertising
• Entertainment
• Increasingly for
communication
Spaces
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Time
• Leisure time expanding with wealth - depends
on economic cycle.
• Productive time - expected to make time work
for you.
• Dealing with ‘Stolen’ time.
• Certain household tasks removed - filled with
work tasks to pay for services and technology
• Demands of modern living: to maintain a
service and technology full life has high cost
in energy and time.
Time
• Weakening of time: gives immediate control,
but introduces uncertainty.
• Strengthening of time : Urgency - instant info
and communications
• Changing time use: Time filling and time
wasting
• Reclaim stolen time
– Media use, communication on move
• Commericalisation of time use
– Expected to pay to do things in that time.
Consumer culture
• Increased wealth and changes in time and
space use + advertising= more stuff
• Continued importance of consumer goods in
life.
• More wealth, and more value attached to
technological devices and services.
• Services become key spending point over
devices
• Many products rejected.
• People control according to core values.
• Development coping strategies in adoption
and use. E.g. communal, avoidance
Configuring technology
• We create our own technological environment
• Modularisation has been key trend unplanned
– TV - video, cable box, games machine, DVD,
remote
– Computer - modular system upgrading
• Multiple devices of different generations, and
sources.
• Different adoption methods (gift, work etc)
– Complementarily,
– Redundancy
– Technological lifecycles
• Different industries own different product
categories - convergence very slow.
Why do we adopt?
• Usually as the result of an Event, usually a life
event
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Failure of existing technology
Maturing
Marriage, divorce
Moving house
First job,Changing job,Entering, ending education
Imposed by employee
Personal success or failure
Life events of others
Children leaving home, retiring
Illness, death
Too many products
• Multiplication of consumer technology spending and adoption choice will
become more diverse.
• Expect upgrade and longer life
• Replacement key factor in upgrade of
specific items,How easy to move people
along product curve? Conservatism v.
experimentation
• Leapfrogging among new owners straight to flat screen, projection
Use and misuse
• People find own uses
• Look at mis-use for ideas on product
change
• Subversion of intended use
• Domestication involves compromises in
the designers ‘script’
• Many people avoid ownership but want
use
Fight for the market
• Convergence is about market ownership and
control, and maintaining a place in the value
network.
• Consumer electronics - device-centred
• Telecommunications systems - system
centred
• Telecommunications services - service/system
centred
• Media content - content centred
• Who defines key products, how does that
control influence shape of devices?
Control of the markets
• TV screen : stand alone device market
• Mobile phones: part of system used to provide
service, highly distorted market
• PayTV service: receive part of system
• New mobiles devices: mixed market
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PDAs stand alone devices…
Mobile work: part of IT systems (IBM etc)
Smart Phones - mobile service
Music players - stand alone…content service?
Operators want to support connections though
their networks,
– Device makers want to sell stand alone devices.
What is TV?
What is TV?
• TV is cheap entertainment, and flexible: used as a
substitute for unaffordable or inaccessible alternatives
• Social in the traditional model – but many people
watch alone.
– To be together
– To be apart, avoid conversation
– Up to 50% of people in major cities now live alone
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Why do we watch TV , and how de we watch TV?
TV to unwind, relax, waste time, fill time
TV for entertainment, leisure
TV for knowledge, learning, belonging
Bring outside world into home
Background noise
Makes us feel worse!
What is TV?
• A device, A medium, A way of organising life, of
seeing world, a system; an Industry,
• Central to leisure, Politics,Mass Market commerce,
culture.
• Used for distraction, learning, engaging with world –
nature, people, politics, for social experiences - :
stimulate imagination; dull senses.
• TV as re-broadcasting of exisiting ‘products’
– Sport, films, theatre
• Much ‘TV’ TV is radio with pictures.
• Powerful linear medium
• Background – like radio or music – keep in touch with
outside, not feel alone.
• Simultaneous Media use - (conflict with single screen
vision)
• Radio more suited to busy, traveling life.
Redefinition of TV
• Redefinition of TV – object, concept, content
• In presence of mobile and internet. PC, and mobile
phone becoming dominant everyday devices,
especially for younger first time buyers.
• New television device forms (flat, projector, truly
portable)
• Screen merging: people buy one screen for two uses
– PC and TV/Video.
• Consumers getting used to new ways of using media
– TV – interactive and now computer style recording
and data managing. Expect to be able to trap, edit
and send all media data the same.
• Expect same input and output devices for different
media - cameras on the TV become common
• Virtual device - cross device use
Redefine TV 2
• TV of future - more personal, more aesthetic,
integrated with other ICT systems, less linear
• Flat screen – last longer, clearer picture
• Less space, better aesthetic.
• Projectors - current sold as ‘home theatre’, but could
be broadened.
• Refind 8mm and slide film experience - personal
movie- as made by self.
• Developed countries - older richer people have
money to invest - remaking home after children leave
home. Parents use big TV to attract children to living
room!
Public Space TV+Media
• Public television spaces: renaissance in public media.
• Cinema : renaissance: digital projection finally developing – low
distribution costs – greater diversity in cinematic content…?
• Private media in public spaces:
• Flat screens – low costs, easy to position: enter into public
transport and to car now. Wirelessly connected
• Growth in screens in trains, cars, taxis, buses communal to
individual: use for advertising, calming passengers; pay per view;
gaming; internet access;
• Retailing: increasing demand for more information in shops:
Subtle use rather than in your face: link to private terminals.
Seduction and information
• Large screen billboards become electronic.
• Not only screens: where there is a screen, a lens too.
• Increased use of security cameras – private and public.
Space and Place
• Screens and devices in
communal spaces
– Bars, Cafes: traditionally strong
media use venue: internal and
external
– Retail outlets: information and
seduction
– Cinema: digital media changes
nature of cinema
– Workplaces
– Learning places
– New communal spaces: Gyms,
– Not only screens: where there is a
screen a lens too.
Mobile/personal Television
What will it really be like?
– Linear broadcast TV
– Prerecorded programmes
– Radio with pictures
– Personal video
• Personal – needs to be cheap –
quality, robustness etc suffer.
• Own configurations, and
subscriptions – not necessarily
own screen watched on
• How to link this device to
everything else?
Personal devices
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Individual identity
Personal video , music, communications
Virtual device
Read paper
Connect to other home, individual and work
systems
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Personal entertainment device
City survival kit
Mobile office
Traveller’s Companion
• Power key question
• Key work tool
Clipboard Professionals
• Peripatetic Workers
• Clipboard professionals: doctors,
engineers, architects, vets, social
workers
• Clipboard technicians: utility
workers etc
• Clipboard serfs: market
researchers, meter readers
• Imaging and identity verification
central to use.
• Virtual devices.
• Production of paper
Clipboard professions
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Notepad
Briefcase
Pocket
Car/truck
Paper will be key for many years:
– Leaves a trial
– Hand over instructions
– Common work space
– Needed for knowledge work
The place of paper
• Paper central to many work
practices:
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Reading
Planning
Reviewing
Submitting
Group work
Command and control
• Much applies to family and
social network.
• Production of print still
dominated by communal
access.
Trends and Issues
• Technology:
– Portable power
– Identity technology
• Business
– Interconnection
– Interoperability
– Dependability of devices
– Regulation for system development and
ownership
Trends and Issues 2
• Social: The role
of women
– Discerning users
– Customers with
different agenda
– Creators of
technology and
service
Trends and Issues
• Social
– Privacy backlash
– Health as new emerging areas of device
and system use at home and personal
level.
Modular technology
• Modular assembly has been basis of
television, and much of computer
evolution, high end cameras
• Allows for upgrades and personalisation
• New devices will follow that trend
• Software mentality
• Virtual devices
• Upgrade of parts
• Customisation
Conclusions
• Changing home space
• New opportunities in public/semipublic spaces
• Personal devices - for professionals and
private use.
• Virtual devices
• Redefining the television
• Complex period of innovation, especially due
to technical uncertainty and convergence
strategies.